Extensible support system for service offerings

ABSTRACT

Techniques are disclosed for integration, provisioning and management of entities and processes in a computing system such as, by way of example only, business entities and business processes. In particular, techniques are disclosed for implementing an extensible support system for multiple service offerings. For example, such a support system can be a business support system which may be employed in conjunction with a cloud computing environment.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is related to U.S. patent application identifiedas attorney docket no. YOR920100248US1, entitled “Ontology BasedResource Provisioning and Management for Services,” filed concurrentlyherewith, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to integration, provisioning andmanagement of entities and processes in computing systems and, moreparticularly to an extensible support system for multiple serviceofferings.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Cloud computing is a new computing model attempting to mask complexitiesof large scale computing systems and provide users with easy to use,flexible, and scalable services. The cloud computing paradigm can beapplied to provide a wide range of services at various levels of acomputing stack ranging from infrastructure (where users gain access tovirtual machines (VM) and are responsible for providing and maintainingan operating system and applications within the VM container) toapplications where users obtain remote access to fully managedapplications. A cloud platform normally has two parts: a businesssupport system (BSS) and an operational support system (OSS).

A BSS is used to manage the interactions between clients and the backend OSS via a network environment on a cloud platform. Such interactionsmay include, but are not limited to, user account management, resourcemanagement, and billing/payment management. These functions differ inspecifics from one service offering to another. Different serviceofferings may utilize different user roles, require differentassociations among offerings, and have different fulfillment procedureswhen processing orders.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Principles of the invention provide, for example, methods, apparatus,articles of manufacture, systems, and data structures for integration,provisioning and management of entities and processes in a computingsystem such as, by way of example only, business entities and businessprocesses. In particular, principles of the invention provide anextensible support system for multiple service offerings. For example,such a support system can be a business support system which may beemployed in conjunction with a cloud computing environment.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a business supportsystem (BSS) for provisioning computing network assets to one or moreusers for users to operate and manage the assets comprises the followingcomponents.

The system comprises one or more user interfaces that provide serviceoffering information to a user about service offerings of a plurality ofservice providers. The system also comprises a selection function on theuser interface used to select one or more of the service offerings.Further, the system comprises one or more interfaces that connect to oneor more locations on one or more networks, each of the locations havingone or more network assets associated with the selected service offeringand the respective service provider. Still further, the system comprisesa mapping function that matches the user selection to one or moreprovisioning processes, wherein when the provisioning processes areexecuted, and one or more physical network resources are provisioned tothe user from one or more of the network locations in an order that theuser can use the service.

Further aspects of the invention comprise methods, apparatus, andarticles of manufacture that provide for implementing such a supportsystem.

Advantageously, principles of the invention provide techniques for usingdomain knowledge to manage multiple service offerings in the samebusiness support system by attaching processes (in the form of statemachines, rules, or other implementations) to ontology nodes (in anontology domain knowledge base) such that the work-flows are captured bythe processes and the relationships between resources and processes arecaptured by the ontology.

These and other features, objects and advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent from the following detailed descriptionof illustrative embodiments thereof, which is to be read in connectionwith the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an overview of a business support systemand its operating environment that associates multiple service users tomultiple service providers, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of components of a business support system andits operating environment, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a conceptual depiction of hierarchicalrelationships in an ontology of service offerings used in an ontologydomain knowledge component of a business support system, in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a state machine that illustrates aprovisioning process associated with an illustrative service, inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a methodology for dynamically locating andexecuting a process, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of a methodology for dynamically locating andexecuting a sequence of processes, in accordance with an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a methodology for executing a specific processidentified in the methodologies of FIGS. 5 and 6, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a computer system for implementing one ormore steps and/or components in accordance with one or more embodimentsof the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Principles of the present invention will be described herein in thecontext of illustrative embodiments of methods, apparatus, articles ofmanufacture, systems, and data structures for providing business supportservices. It is to be appreciated, however, that the principles of thepresent invention are not limited to the specific methods, apparatus,articles of manufacture, systems, and data structures, or types ofsupport services illustratively shown and described herein. Rather, theprinciples of the invention are directed broadly to techniques relatedto integration, provisioning and management of entities and processes incomputing systems. For this reason, numerous modifications can be madeto the embodiments shown that are within the scope of the presentinvention. That is, no limitations with respect to the specificembodiments described herein are intended or should be inferred.

For example, principles of the invention may apply to an “enterprise.”As used herein, the term “enterprise” is understood to broadly refer toany real-world entity that is created or formed to achieve some purpose,examples of which include, but are not limited to, an undertaking, anendeavor, a venture, a business, a concern, a corporation, anestablishment, a firm, an organization, or the like. While illustrativeembodiments of the invention may refer to a “business,” it is understoodthat a “business” is only one example of an enterprise to whichprinciples of the invention may apply.

Further, as used herein, the term “process” generally refers to one ormore methodologies, one or more steps, one or more algorithms, one ormore operations, one or more actions, one or more ways of performingfunctions and/or tasks, that are associated with an entity. Thus,“business processes” are processes that are associated with a particularbusiness and performed in accordance with one or more computing systemsassociated with that particular business.

Information and/or computing services are offered and provided by, forexample, a cloud computing resource service provider. Customerself-service for enrollment, subscription, service configuration andother related business functions may be a significant feature forcost-effective delivery of cloud offerings. Such functions may begrouped together and known as a business support system (BSS). Servicesof a BSS may be delivered through Web or Internet computing services andhosted in one or more centralized data centers (e.g., one or morecompute clouds that form a computing system).

The term “cloud computing” is typically defined as a computingcapability that provides an abstraction between the computing resourceand its underlying technical architecture (e.g., servers, storage,networks), enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a sharedpool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisionedand released with minimal management effort or service providerinteraction, see, Cloud Computing Definition, National Institute ofStandards and Technology, Version 15, October 2009, the disclosure ofwhich is incorporated by reference herein. However, it is to beunderstood that principles of the invention are not intended to belimited to this particular definition of cloud computing, and that othersuitable computing environments are contemplated as being within thescope of the invention.

It is known that traditional BSSs have been built to serve specificservice offerings. A “service offering” is generally known to be aservice that is offered to customers (clients) by a service provider.The type of service can be any type of service that is capable of beingoffered via the system offering the service.

However, as Web-delivered service offerings have proliferated, it hasbeen realized in accordance with principles of the invention, that it isdesirable to design a general-purpose BSS that can be tailored to servea variety of service offerings, even multiple service offeringssimultaneously. Such a BSS should preferably reflect the differentservices offered by the service offering, the relationships among theofferings, what provisioning actions need to be taken when services areordered, what user roles are required by the service offering, and whatservice-management actions users in each role are enabled to perform. A“role” is a named set of one or more users who are associated withcapabilities that may be defined by a service provider for a serviceoffering. These are illustrative features that a BSS formed inaccordance with principles of the invention provides.

A common cloud platform typically offers multiple service offerings,e.g., Desktop as a Service (DaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) orVirtual Storage Cloud (VSC). It is to be understood that principles ofthe invention are not limited to any particular service offerings.Nonetheless, for purposes of a better understanding of illustrativeembodiments, service offerings such as DaaS, SaaS and VSC will bereferred to herein. These services may be generally described asfollows.

DaaS (Desktop as a Service) provides virtual desktop infrastructurebased on application streaming and virtualization technology. The DaaSservice provider manages the back-end responsibilities of data storage,backup, security and upgrades. The customer's personal data is copied toand from the virtual desktop during logon/logoff and access to thedesktop is device, location and network independent.

SaaS (Software as a Service) is a software delivery method that providesaccess to software and its functions remotely as a Web-based service.With SaaS, a provider licenses an application to customers as a serviceon demand, through a subscription or a “pay-as-you-go” model.

VSC (Virtual Storage Cloud) provides storage infrastructure as a serviceto clients. VSC saves clients investment in personnel, in hardware andin physical storage space.

These service offerings may have similar business support requirements,such as adding a user account and renewing a service subscription.Advantageously, it is realized in accordance with principles of theinvention that, in the best interests of the clients and serviceproviders, it is important to generalize such business requirements andmanage them in one BSS instance on the common cloud platform.

FIG. 1 shows an overview of a BSS and its operating environment thatassociates multiple service users (i.e., clients or customers) tomultiple service providers, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention. That is, system architecture 100 includes a portal 102 forclients to interface with multiple service offerings. The portal 102 isoperatively coupled to a single BSS, i.e., the BSS 104. The BSS 104 isoperatively coupled to the multiple OSSs (operational support systems)for each service offering, i.e., OSS 106-1 (service offering 1), OSS106-2 (service offering 2) . . . OSS 106-N (service offering N). TheseOSS systems support the service offerings, themselves, as provided bytheir respective service providers, for example, OSS 106-1 may implementa DaaS offering, OSS 106-2 may implement an SaaS offering, and OSS 106-3may implement a VSC offering.

In general, the BSS 104 interprets requests from the portal 102, andsends corresponding instructions to the appropriate OSSs 106-1, 106-2 .. . 106-N. The portal 102 serves multiple service offerings. Therefore,potentially, the requests need to be routed to different OSSs. Theportal 102 also sends replies and other information to the user.

Furthermore, it is to be understood that the portal 102 serves as one ormore user interfaces (e.g., graphical user interfaces) that provideservice offering information to the user about service offerings of aplurality of service providers (i.e., in accordance with the OSSs 106-1,106-2 . . . 106-N). Also, it is to be appreciated that the portal 102comprises a selection function that allows the user to select one ormore of the service offerings. Given the inventive teachings providedherein, one ordinarily skilled in the art will appreciate variousstraightforward implementations of the one or more interfaces of theportal 102.

At the business level, different service offerings may have similarrequirements for business support services. Such requirements mayinclude user management, offering management, order/subscriptionmanagement, entitlement, billing and payment. A simple existing solutionfor service providers is to provide separate business support servicesfor each service offering to which a client subscribes. However, it isextremely inconvenient for clients to access the subscribed services. Inaddition, it is time-consuming for service providers to update thebusiness support services when certain processes are changed formultiple (connected) service offerings.

Principles of the invention provide an approach to provide businesssupport services for multiple service offerings. A core component ofthis approach is the provision of one or more domain specific ontologynodes that encode the semantics of resources involved in the serviceofferings. It is to be appreciated that an ontology is generally knownto be a specification of how to represent objects, concepts, processesand entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest andrelationships that hold among them. For each ontology node according toan embodiment of the invention, state machines and rules may be attachedto translate a request from the portal 102 to a list of actions to beexecuted by the BSS 104 and corresponding OSS backend systems 106. Theinventive approach also allows customization for a specific serviceoffering in order to correctly interpret and execute a user's (client's)requests in that context.

While there exist tools for expressing specific service-offeringrequirements for a BSS, such as Unified Modeling Language (UML) andBusiness Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), service-offering developersmust still develop BSSs using low-level programming tools, with reuselimited to low-level BSS-related modules. There are programming systemsthat allow high-level development within a certain domain, such asgraphical user interface (GUI) development systems, and Business ProcessExecution Language (BPEL) based process-definition systems. However,unlike the inventive approach, these tools do not offer the coreconcepts of a BSS such as, for example, expression of relationshipsamong offerings related to purchasing, and hence cannot offer them asfoundational elements of the programming system. Also, unlike theinventive approach, these programming systems do not offer a runtimeframework that enables multiple service offerings to be supported by asingle BSS for users to purchase and manage multiple services from asingle user portal.

These existing tools generally address these problems by “hard-coding”the processes required for a particular user and/or service offering.Each of these code structures only addresses a specific configurationfor a particular service and/or user. To change configuration of aservice offering in these existing systems would require a re-write ofthe code. This is inflexible, expensive, and time-consuming.

Principles of the invention provide a solution on how to manage multipleOSS systems in the same BSS system and how to map a user's request to alist of actionable steps involving multiple OSS systems.

First of all, it is not easy for the existing tools or systems toprovision network assets for different configuration of serviceofferings or users. A re-writing of the system might be needed toaccommodate the new service offerings or offers.

Secondly, unlike the inventive approach, the existing systems do notprovide a systematic approach for a BSS to flexibly connect to multipleoperational support systems via service offerings, which by definitionneed support from those operational support systems.

Thirdly, unlike the inventive approach, the existing systems do notprovide a mechanism to easily associate entities (e.g., businessentities such as offerings and their relationships) with correspondingprocesses (e.g., business processes such as provisioning and upgrading).In accordance with principles of the invention, such a mechanismfacilitates the assembly of processes at runtime and reuse of processesfor the same entities. It also facilitates the configuration changes onentities and processes without requiring a new system design or systemrework.

Furthermore, because of the modern proliferation of cloud computingenvironments, users desire to acquire services from multiple serviceproviders. In the existing systems, the users have to engage eachservice provider individually. Unlike the inventive approach, theexisting systems do not permit the user to access services from multipleproviders easily from one source. Also, unlike the inventive approach,the existing systems do not allow multiple services providers to provideservices through one portal and to change the service offerings in adynamic way through that single portal.

Accordingly, principles of the invention provide techniques for usingdomain knowledge to manage multiple service offerings in the same BSSsystem (e.g., BSS 104). One key point is to attach processes (in theform of state machines, rules, or other implementations) to ontologynodes (in an ontology domain knowledge base, as will be explained below)such that the work-flows are captured by the processes and therelationships between resources and processes are captured by theontology. Many advantages flow from such inventive techniques, by way ofexample only: (1) business processes are localized in ontology nodes sothat the impact of process changes can be minimized; (2) there is noneed to develop a business support system for each service offering; and(3) the BSS system is extensible and scalable, and thus it becomes easyto add business support capabilities into a new service offering.

FIG. 2 shows components of a business support system and its operatingenvironment, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. That is,FIG. 2 shows the same system architecture 100 that is shown in FIG. 1,but with a more detailed depiction of components that make up the BSS104. Thus, as shown, the BSS 104 comprises the following components.

BSS application programming interface (API) module 202: This is the APIused for interacting with the portal 102. The operations in this API mayinclude but are not limited to: adding a user, updating a payment,uploading images, submitting a shopping cart and presentingsubscriptions. Examples of subscription related activities can include,but not be limited to, creating one or more account entries thatassociate a change in a set of assets with the user requesting theservice offering. The account entries can include, for example, one ormore of: a status change for the user, a list of assets for the user, achange in a list of asset for the user, a charge, and a credit. Giventhe inventive teachings provided herein, one ordinarily skilled in theart will appreciate various straightforward implementations of the BSSAPI 202.

Ontology domain knowledge repository module 204: This is the knowledgebase containing information about relationships between resources andhow user requests should be handled. This repository is where theontology nodes reside and are accessed.

BSS mapping engine module 206: This is the engine which maps a requestto a list of actions for BSS core and OSS systems. Other functions ofthe BSS mapping engine will be evident through the illustrativedescriptions below in the context of FIGS. 5 through 7.

BSS core module 208: This is the component which provides businesssupport functions such as, for example, billing, reporting,subscription/order management, and so on. Of course, other types of BSSfunctions may be part of the core.

Service offering BSS interface module 210: This is the interface used tofacilitate the communications between the BSS 104 and OSS systems 106-1,106-2 . . . 106-N. Given the inventive teachings provided herein, oneordinarily skilled in the art will appreciate various straightforwardimplementations of the service offering BSS interface 210.

On the portal 102, when a user conducts an operation, one or morefunctions in the BSS API 202 are called. Subsequently, one or morerequests are generated and sent to the BSS mapping engine 206. The BSSmapping engine 206 then consults the ontology domain knowledgerepository 204 to map the one or more requests to one or more lists ofactions to be executed by the BSS core 208 and the back-end OSS systems106-1, 106-2 . . . 106-N. The order of the actions (i.e., which actionis executed first, which second, and so on) is also determined by theBSS mapping engine 206.

Accordingly, BSS 104 may be considered an embodiment of a businesssupport system (BSS) for provisioning network assets to one or moreusers for users to operate and manage the assets. Thus, the BSScomprises one or more user interfaces that provide service offeringinformation to a user about service offerings of a plurality of serviceproviders. The BSS also comprises a selection function on the userinterface used to select one or more of the service offerings. Suchinterfaces and selection function may be realized via portal 102 and BSSAPI 202. The BSS also comprises one or more interfaces that connect toone or more locations on one or more networks, each of the locationshaving one or more network assets associated with the selected serviceoffering and the respective service provider. For example, the locationscould be the OSS systems 106-1, 106-2 . . . 106-N, and the interfacesthat connect to the locations could be the service offering BSSinterface 210. More generally, the locations can be one or more networklocations on a computer network, and the network location may comprise anetwork site of the service provider of the service offering requestedby the user.

The BSS also comprises a mapping function that matches the userselection to one or more provisioning processes, wherein when theprovisioning processes are executed, and one or more physical networkresources are provisioned to the user from one or more of the networklocations in an order that the user can use the service. The BSS mappingengine 206 is an example of such a mapping function.

The illustrative embodiments of methodologies performed by the BSSmapping engine 206 will be described below in the context of FIGS. 5, 6and 7. However, first, illustrative embodiments of an ontology and astate machine associated therewith are described in the context of FIGS.3 and 4.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a domain ontology, which describes theresources in two services offerings (DaaS and VSC) as well as theirrelationships. It is to be understood that while an ontology maycomprise one ontology node, the ontology shown in FIG. 3 comprisesmultiple ontology nodes in a hierarchical tree structure, i.e., eachellipse in the figure may represent a separate ontology node. Note thatthe domain that the ontology in FIG. 3 applies to is cloud computing.However, it is to be appreciated that principles of the invention arenot limited to any particular domain.

Note from the domain ontology example of FIG. 3 that DaaS has two typesof offerings: basic offerings (BasicDaaS) and auxiliary offerings(AuxDaaS). Under BasicDaaS, there are three children: Bronze Desktop,Silver Desktop and Gold Desktop. Under AuxDaaS, there is one child:Additional storage (AddStorage), which is also a child of the BasicVSCclass. In addition, there is a “dependsOn” relationship pointing fromAuxDaaS to BasicDaaS, which indicates that AuxDaas offerings depend onBasicDaaS offerings. Table 1 below shows examples of entities,relationships between entities, and values of certain properties. Table1 is one illustrative embodiment of a data structure used to implementan ontology for multiple service offerings in accordance with the BSS104.

Subject Property Object Bronze isa BasicDaaS Bronze upgrade SilverBronze hasOfferingData Instance of OfferingData BronzehasProvisionProcess Link to provisioning process (Bronze upgrade Silver)hasUpgradeProcess Link to upgrade process AuxDaaS dependsOn BasicDaaS

Illustrative principles of the invention then associate state machinesand rules to ontology nodes in order to handle requests from the portal102 (FIG. 2). In one illustrative embodiment, the property“hasProvisionProcess” is used to associate a provisioning process 302with the Bronze node 304. The process 302 can refer to a state machine400, as shown in FIG. 4, which specifies the following steps for aprovisioning request:

(1) BSS core (208 in FIG. 2) creates a pending sales order (step 402);

(2) DaaS OSS system (106 in FIG. 2) provisions a block of Bronzedesktops (step 404); note that “desktops” are the virtual desktopsprovisioned in DaaS (“Bronze” is the designation for thequality-of-service (QoS) characteristic associated with this particularlevel of service; “Silver” and “Gold” being examples of progressivelyhigher QoS levels);

(3) DaaS OSS system returns OK status (step 406);

(4) BSS submits the cart to BSS core (step 408), which changes thestatus of the sales order to “Completed,” and creates a subscription(step 410);

(5) BSS (104 in FIG. 2) returns OK to the portal (step 412)k;

(6) The portal notifies the user.

Then the property “hasOfferingData” associates specific data (certainparameters) with the offerings nodes, including the Bronze node 304. Theoffering data 306 could include central processing unit (CPU) size,storage and Internet Protocol (IP) address. Note that state machine 400is only one example of a state machine that can be used for one examplenode of an ontology formed in accordance with principles of theinvention.

It is to be appreciated that the ontology 300 in FIG. 3 can, itself, beconsidered as being implemented as an overall data structure for usewith one or more computing systems in providing techniques of theinvention. Furthermore, within the overall data structure of ontology300, one or more data structures are maintained and accessible atdifferent levels of the ontology, e.g., one or more parent datastructures, one or more child data structures, one or more internal datastructures, one or more edge structures, and so on. It is to beunderstood that the data structures, themselves, that implement thenodes and components of the ontology 300 may be any suitable form of adata structure including but not limited to data trees, data tables(e.g., Table 1 above), and so on.

In general, it is understood that the phrase “data structure” as usedherein refers to a particular method or mechanism of storing andorganizing data and knowledge in a computing system so that it can beused efficiently. Thus, given a particular data structure, a processingdevice such as one used to implement the BSS mapping engine 206 mayaccess the data structure and use the data stored therein to executeparticular instructions in order to realize the inventive featuresdescribed herein.

It is also to be appreciated that a given data structure at a givenlevel may have a different function depending on the context of therequest, e.g., a parent data structure in one context may be a childdata structure in another context, and so on.

Thus, in the overall data structure of ontology 300, there is a leaflevel comprising a plurality of offering nodes. The offering nodes,themselves, are data structures containing service offering information.The offering nodes are the leaf nodes in the ontology such as, forexample in FIG. 3, “Bronze” 304 and “Silver” 303. The “Bronze” node hasa couple of properties such as, for example, hasOfferingData. Therectangle labeled “OfferingData” 306 represents the detailed attributesof “Bronze,” such as CPU size, memory size, and so on.

Further, the overall data structure of ontology 300 may comprise one ormore internal levels. Each of the internal levels has one or more parentnode data structures. Internal data structures correspond to theinternal nodes in the ontology, which have one or more children nodes.Note that “internal data structure,” “parent data structure” and “childdata structure” are referring to the subsumption hierarchy (or graph)formed by the “rdfs:subClassOf” property. For example, “Bronze” is aleaf node in this subsumption hierarchy, because it does not have anymore sub-classes. “BasicDaaS” 318 is an internal node, also a parentnode, which has two subclasses: “Bronze” and “Silver.”

Still further, the overall data structure of ontology 300 may compriseone or more edge data structures. The edge data structure with label“rdfs:subClassOf” has hierarchy information that defines a subordinaterelationship either from one of the offering nodes to a parent node orfrom a lower parent node to a higher parent node. One or more of theparent nodes have attributes that are common to each of the nodes thathave a subordinate relation to the respective parent node. Other edgedata structures may represent different relationships between the nodedata structures. One example of an edge data structure that contains arelationship is the data structure that implements the relationship“dependsOn” 316 in FIG. 3.

The overall data structure of ontology 300 also may comprise one or moreresource data structures that are associated with one or more of thenodes. The resource data structures define one or more physical networkresources required to provision to a user to provide a service describedin the service offering information. For example, as shown in FIG. 3,the property “hasOfferingData” associates resource details“OfferingData,” which are needed to provision Bronze desktop, with the“Bronze” node.

Also the overall data structure of ontology 300 may comprise one or moreprovisioning processes associated with one or more of the nodes, by wayof example only, provisioning process 302. The provisioning process isexecuted such that one or more of the physical network resources areprovisioned to the user in an order that the user can use the service.The physical network resources (network assets) may include, but are notlimited to, one or more of: a virtual central processing unit (CPU), acomputer memory allocation, a storage requirement, a computer program, adata structure, and an IP address.

Note also that two or more of the provisioning processes may be executedin a provisioning sequence wherein the provisioning sequence isdetermined by a traversal of the overall data structure of the ontology300. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, the provisioning process may beassociated with an offering node such that the provisioning processcomprises steps required to provision the physical network assets toallow the user to use the service described by the respective offeringnode. Also, the provisioning process may be associated with a parentnode such that the provisioning process comprises steps required toprovision the physical network assets that are in common required by allnodes that are subordinate to the respective parent node.

As shown in FIG. 3, certain of the data structures may be associatedwith a particular service provider, and also with a particular serviceoffering from a particular service provider.

Still further, the overall data structure of the ontology 300 in FIG. 3may comprise one or more status data structures. Such status datastructures define a status change of one or more of the nodes. Forexample, the status data structure may define one or more configurationschanges required to change the service offering provided from a firstoffering to a second offering. Also included in the data structure maybe one or more status processes that comprise the steps performed tochange the configuration defined in the respective status data structureto implement the change from a first offering to a second offering for auser. An example of a status data structure is data structure 301 inFIG. 3, which represents the relationship <Bronze, upgrade, Silver>. Therelationship is expressed via a link pointing from “Bronze” to “Silver”with an upgrade property associated with that link.

A status change may include but is not limited to a delete change. Thatis, the status data structure may define physical network assets to beremoved from the service defined in one of the nodes. In such case, thestatus process prevents the user from using the respective physicalnetwork resources. In FIG. 3, it is shown that a service offering, suchas “Bronze” can be associated with a provision process which is tocreate an instance of the “Bronze DaaS” offering. The property“hasOfferingData” connects an offering to its attributes(“OfferingData”). For example, “Bronze” may have a list of attributes inits “OfferingData,” such as RAM size and hard drive size. Theseattributes will be sent to the OSS when an instance of the correspondingoffering is created. Similarly, a de-provision process can be associatedwith an offering to delete its instances from the system. The attributesin the “OfferingData” should be sent to the OSS as well when an instanceof the corresponding offering is deleted.

Further, the status change may be a resource change. Here, the statusdata structure defines physical network assets to be changed for theservice defined in one of the nodes, and the status process changes therespective physical network resources that are provisioned.

Another example of a status change is an upgrade change. Here, thestatus data structure defines physical network assets to be provided toupgrade the service from the first service offering to a second serviceoffering, and the status process further provisions the user withadditional physical network resources.

Still further, the status change may be a downgrade change, wherein thestatus data structure defines physical network assets to be removed todowngrade the service from the first service offering to a secondservice offering, and the status process further prevents the user fromusing one or more of the additional physical network resources.

Yet another example of a status change that may be implemented is aservice integration. Here, the status data structure defines physicalnetwork assets to be modified to integrate one service offering with oneor more of other offerings, and the status process causes the necessaryintegration implementation. That is, some service offerings areintegrated offerings across services from different providers. Forexample, in FIG. 3, the “AddStorage” (additional storage) offering is asubclass of both “AuxDaaS” (auxiliary DaaS) and “BasicVSC.” So, it is anintegrated service offering which needs support from both “AuxDaaS” and“BasicVSC.” This is because it adds additional storage to desktopblocks, yet it also needs management capabilities from VSC.

It is to be appreciated that the above status changes may be provideddirectly from the service provider to the user, or provided from theservice provider through the BSS interface and then to the user.

The overall data structure of the ontology 300 in FIG. 3 may alsocomprise one or more condition checking data structures. Such datastructures comprise rules that define dependencies between two nodes.The ontology may also include one or more condition checking processesfor implementing a checking defined by the condition checking datastructure. An example of a condition checking data structure may be a“dependsOn” relationship 316.

It is also to be appreciated that a condition checking data structuremay comprise one or more of: a pre-requisite resource being provisioned,and a governance requirement being satisfied. For example, in FIG. 3,there is a link pointing from “AuxDaaS” to “BasicDaaS” with a property“dependsOn,” which means that an instance of “AuxDaaS” can not beprovisioned without an instance of “BasicDaaS.” Such relationshipensures the pre-requisite resource checking. Similarly, service levelagreement (SLA) requirements (including governance requirement) can beassociated with an offering such that when its instance is created, suchrequirements will be checked.

It is still further to be appreciated that the overall data structure ofFIG. 3 or one or more data structures that comprise the overall datastructure, can be transmitted over a network interface, or can bereceived over a network interface.

Accordingly, as illustratively explained herein, the physical networkresources associated with the service offerings are provisioned byexecuting one or more processes in an order determined by traversing apath through the ontology 300, wherein the ontology 300 has one or moresets of relationships between a plurality of service offerings providedby one or more of the service providers. The ontology 300 furtherspecifies one or more of the provisioning processes required toprovision the physical network assets required for one or more of theservice offerings. The ontology 300 also specifies a hierarchicalstructure among the service offerings so that the path determined by theselected service offering defines an order of executing the provisioningprocesses.

Turning now to FIG. 5, a methodology is shown for dynamically locatingand executing a process (such as, by way of example only, provisioningprocess 302), in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Morespecifically methodology 500 is performed by the system architecture 100of FIG. 1. Thus, when appropriate, reference will be made to thecomponents depicted therein.

In step 502, a user (client or customer) submits a request via the userportal 102. For purposes of this illustrative description, a workingexample is assumed wherein the request made by the user is for upgradingfrom a Bronze desktop service (Bronze DaaS) to a Silver desktop service(Silver DaaS). Of course, it is to be realized that principles of theinvention are not limited to any specific request or service.

While the description of FIG. 5 below assumes an upgrade process asbeing the status process being requested, other types of statusprocesses may be requested including, but not limited to, a servicedowngrade, adding a cryptographic key (e.g., Secure Shell or SSH key)key, and an operating system patching process.

In step 504, the BSS mapping engine 206 maps the user request to a BSSoperation in the BSS core 208. For this specific request in the workingexample, the user request is mapped into the “upgrading” BSS operation.

In step 506, the BSS mapping engine 206 maps the BSS operation to arelationship in the ontology domain knowledge repository 204.Specifically, for the working example, the “upgrading” operation ismapped to the “upgrade” relationship.

In step 508, the BSS mapping engine 206 identifies the types of objectsinvolved in the specific user request, e.g., <t_(s), t_(o)>, where t_(s)is Bronze and t_(o) is Silver in the working example (note that s refersto subject and o refers to object as per Table 1 above).

In step 510, the BSS mapping engine 206 initializes an iterator over therelationship total order. For example, for this request, since Bronzeand Silver are subclasses of BasicDaaS, BasicDaaS is a subclass of DaaS,and DaaS is a subclass of ServiceOffering, we can add <Bronze,BasicDaaS>, <BasicDaaS, BasicDaaS>, <BasicDaaS, DaaS>, <DaaS, DaaS>,<DaaS, ServiceOffering>, <ServiceOffering, ServiceOffering> into theiterated list. The order is from specific classes to general classes.

In step 512, the BSS mapping engine 208 takes next relationship <T_(s),T_(o)> from relationship total order and, in step 514, determineswhether <t_(s), t_(o)> matches <T_(s), T_(o), P> Basically, step 512checks if T_(s) is an ancestor of t_(s) in the hierarchy formed bysubclass relationship and if T_(o) is an ancestor of t_(o). If so,<t_(s), t_(o)> then matches <T_(s), T_(o), P>.

If there is a match in step 514, then the process P is executed in step516. For example, referring back to FIG. 3, since there is an upgradeprocess (308) associated with the upgrade relationship (310) betweenBronze and Silver, and <Bronze, Silver> matches <Bronze, Silver>, whichis also the first one in the iterated list, that upgrade process will beselected and executed.

If there is no match in step 514, then in step 518, the BSS mappingengine 206 determines whether the iterator has any more elements, i.e.,any more relationships to be considered. If so, then the methodologyreturns to step 512 and repeats. If not, an error message is returned instep 520. It is preferable that the system ensures that any selectablechoice should have an executable process.

FIG. 6 shows a methodology for dynamically locating and executing asequence of processes, in accordance with an embodiment of theinvention. More specifically methodology 600 is performed by the systemarchitecture 100 of FIG. 1. Thus, when appropriate, reference will bemade to the components depicted therein. It is to be appreciated thatFIG. 5 is a methodology for identifying the process associated with arelationship, for example, upgrading from Bronze service to Silverservice. FIG. 6 is a methodology for identifying a list of processes andassembling them for an operation on a resource, for example,provisioning Bronze desktops. It is assumed in this desktop-provisioningworking example used for explaining FIG. 6 that such operations onlyinvolve one type of resource. However, principles of the invention arenot so limited.

In step 602, the BSS mapping engine 206 maps the BSS operation to a leafnode A in an ontology. For example, given a request for provisioning ablock of Bronze desktops, this operation is mapped to the leaf node“Bronze,” since it is the resource involved in this request.

In step 604, the BSS mapping engine 206 identifies a process property Pof leaf node A for the operation (recall that the operation is what auser request received from the portal is mapped to). For example, forthe provisioning operation of the working example, the property is“hasProvisionProcess” (312 in FIG. 3).

In step 606, the BSS mapping engine loads the process of property P and,in step 608, determines whether the process needs to traverse theontology. If no, then the process is executed for the leaf node A. Forexample, given the provisioning process associated with the Bronzedesktop, it may have all of the steps needed to create a Bronze desktopfor the user. In that case, that process will be executed for the Bronzenode.

If the process needs to traverse the ontology (step 608), then in step612, the BSS mapping engine 206 sets the current node N to an internalnode X to which the process points. In the working example, suppose theprocess associated with the Bronze node specifies that the system shouldexecute the process associated with the DaaS node, then execute theprocess associated with the BasicDaaS node, then finishes the rest ofthe steps in the process with Bronze. Then, the algorithm will first goto the DaaS node, which is assigned to the node N.

In step 614, the path between node X and node A is identified by the BSSmapping engine 206. Specifically in the working example, the pathconsists of DaaS, BasicDaaS and Bronze.

In step 616, the process for the current node N (in the working example,the node DaaS) is executed.

In step 618, the BSS mapping engine 206 determines whether there are anymore nodes in the path (identified in step 614) between node X and nodeA. If no, the methodology ends at block 620. If yes, the current node Nis set to the next node in the path and the methodology returns to step616 and repeats. For example, node N will point to BasicDaaS and Bronzeaccordingly to execute the processes associated with them.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a methodology for executing a specific processidentified in the methodologies of FIGS. 5 and 6, in accordance with anembodiment of the invention. It is to be appreciated that the BSS engine206 also executes the process, i.e., performs the steps of FIG. 7.

In step 702, the process is loaded, e.g., the process in FIG. 4.

In step 704, it is determined whether there is a check for anydependency relationship. If yes, then a check that the dependedcondition is satisfied is performed in step 706. For example, whenprovisioning the AuxDaaS service, since there is a property “dependsOn”(316 in FIG. 3) pointing from AuxDaaS (314) to BasicDaaS (318), thealgorithm will check if there is a BasicDaaS instance provisioned uponwhich an AuxDaaS instance can be provisioned.

If the depended condition is not satisfied (step 706), the algorithmstops with an error (block 707). However, assuming an affirmative resultin the dependency check in step 706, the current step of the process isexecuted in step 708. For example, the first step of the process in FIG.4 is executed for creating a pending sales order upon the provisioningrequest (402).

In step 710, it is determined whether the action associated with thestep is for the corresponding OSS (106 in FIG. 2) to perform. If so,then in step 712 a request is sent to the OSS via the service offeringBSS interface (210 in FIG. 2). For instance, in FIG. 4, upon entry intothe Provision State, the step of “BSS sends a request to DaaS OSS” willbe executed via the service offering BSS interface.

If not an OSS action, then it is determined that the step is associatedwith the BSS core 208, and thus the appropriate logic in the BSS core isexecuted in step 714. For example, step 408 in FIG. 4, i.e., “BSSsubmits the shopping cart to the core,” should be executed in the BSScore 208.

The BSS core status is updated in step 716 in response to steps 712 or714. For example, certain records in the database of the BSS core 208will be created or updated to reflect the results of the execution.

In step 718, it is determined whether any more steps are triggered bythe state change in the process state machine. If no, then themethodology ends at block 720. If yes, the methodology returns to step708 and repeats. For example, if the OnExit event of “BSS Update State”occurs and the step associated with that event is executed successfully,the process ends.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, apparatus, method or computerprogram product. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may takethe form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely softwareembodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) oran embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of one or moreprogramming languages, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

Referring again to FIGS. 1-7, the diagrams in the figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in aflowchart or a block diagram may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagram and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagram and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

Accordingly, techniques of the invention, for example, as depicted inFIGS. 1-7, can also include, as described herein, providing a system,wherein the system includes distinct modules (e.g., modules comprisingsoftware, hardware or software and hardware). By way of example only,the modules may include, but are not limited to, a BSS API module, anontology domain knowledge repository module, a BSS mapping enginemodule, a BSS core module, and a service offering BSS interface module.These and other modules may be configured, for example, to perform thesteps described and illustrated in the context of FIGS. 1-7.

One or more embodiments can make use of software running on a generalpurpose computer or workstation. With reference to FIG. 8, such animplementation 800 employs, for example, a processor 802, a memory 804,and an input/output interface formed, for example, by a display 806 anda keyboard 808. The term “processor” as used herein is intended toinclude any processing device, such as, for example, one that includes aCPU (central processing unit) and/or other forms of processingcircuitry. Further, the term “processor” may refer to more than oneindividual processor. The term “memory” is intended to include memoryassociated with a processor or CPU, such as, for example, RAM (randomaccess memory), ROM (read only memory), a fixed memory device (forexample, hard drive), a removable memory device (for example, diskette),a flash memory and the like. In addition, the phrase “input/outputinterface” as used herein, is intended to include, for example, one ormore mechanisms for inputting data to the processing unit (for example,keyboard or mouse), and one or more mechanisms for providing resultsassociated with the processing unit (for example, display or printer).

The processor 802, memory 804, and input/output interface such asdisplay 806 and keyboard 808 can be interconnected, for example, via bus810 as part of a data processing unit 812. Suitable interconnections,for example, via bus 810, can also be provided to a network interface814, such as a network card, which can be provided to interface with acomputer network, and to a media interface 816, such as a diskette orCD-ROM drive, which can be provided to interface with media 818.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing programcode can include at least one processor 802 coupled directly orindirectly to memory elements 804 through a system bus 810. The memoryelements can include local memory employed during actual execution ofthe program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which providetemporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce thenumber of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage duringexecution.

Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboard 808,display 806, pointing device, and the like) can be coupled to the systemeither directly (such as via bus 810) or through intervening I/Ocontrollers (omitted for clarity).

Network adapters such as network interface 814 may also be coupled tothe system to enable the data processing system to become coupled toother data processing systems or remote printers or storage devicesthrough intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem andEthernet cards are just a few of the currently available types ofnetwork adapters.

As used herein, a “server” includes a physical data processing system(for example, system 812 as shown in FIG. 8) running a server program.It will be understood that such a physical server may or may not includea display and keyboard.

It will be appreciated and should be understood that the exemplaryembodiments of the invention described above can be implemented in anumber of different fashions. Given the teachings of the inventionprovided herein, one of ordinary skill in the related art will be ableto contemplate other implementations of the invention. Indeed, althoughillustrative embodiments of the present invention have been describedherein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to beunderstood that the invention is not limited to those preciseembodiments, and that various other changes and modifications may bemade by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope orspirit of the invention.

1. A business support system (BSS) for provisioning computing networkassets to one or more users for users to operate and manage the assets,the system comprising: one or more user interfaces that provide serviceoffering information to a user about service offerings of a plurality ofservice providers; a selection function on the user interface used toselect one or more of the service offerings; one or more interfaces thatconnect to one or more locations on one or more networks, each of thelocations having one or more network assets associated with the selectedservice offering and the respective service provider; and a mappingfunction that matches the user selection to one or more provisioningprocesses, wherein when the provisioning processes are executed, and oneor more physical network resources are provisioned to the user from oneor more of the network locations in an order that the user can use theservice.
 2. A system, as in claim 1, wherein the asset includes one ormore of: a memory allocation, an amount of storage, a virtual machine,an interne protocol (IP) address, and a computer program.
 3. A system,as in claim 1, wherein one or more of the interfaces is an applicationprogramming interface (API) which is used to connect the BSS to one ormore operational support systems (OSS) each associated with one of therespective service providers, the OSS establishing one or morerelationships between the selected service offering and one or more ofthe network assets.
 4. A system, as in claim 1, wherein the provisioningprocesses are executed on one or more of: the BSS and an operationalsupport system (OSS).
 5. A system, as in claim 1, wherein the serviceofferings are a set of service offerings provided by more than oneprovider.
 6. A system, as in claim 1, further comprising one or morestatus processes that are performed to change a service offering.
 7. Asystem, as in claim 6, wherein a status process performs one or more of:an upgrade, a downgrade, adding a key, and patching an operating system.8. A method for provisioning computing network assets to one or moreusers for users to operate and manage the assets, the method comprisingthe steps of: receiving a user request regarding one or more serviceofferings where two or more of the service offerings are provided bydifferent providers; for each service offering, determining a locationfor the provider of the service offering; selecting one or moreprovisioning processes associated with the service offering for therespective provider from a plurality of provisioning processes; andexecuting the provisioning processes in an order to interact with anoperational support system (OSS) resulting in a set of assets that areprovided to the user from the provider.
 9. A method, as in claim 8,further comprising the step of executing one or more status processesthat are performed to change a service offering.
 10. A method, as inclaim 9, wherein the change in the set of assets includes one or moreof: an addition of an asset, a deletion of an asset, and a modificationof an asset.
 11. A method, as in claim 9, wherein the change is provideddirectly from the provider to the user.
 12. A method, as in claim 9,wherein the change is provided from the provider through a BSS interfaceand then to the user.
 13. A method, as in claim 8, wherein the locationcomprises one or more network locations on a computer network.
 14. Amethod, as in claim 13, wherein the network location comprises a networksite of the provider of the service offering requested by the user. 15.A method, as in claim 8, further comprising the steps of creating one ormore account entries that associate the change in the set of assets withthe user requesting the service offering.
 16. A method, as in claim 15,wherein the account entries include one or more of: a status change forthe user, a list of assets for the user, a change in a list of asset forthe user, a charge, and a credit.
 17. A method, as in claim 8, whereinthe physical network resources associated with the service offerings areprovisioned by executing one or more processes in an order determined bytraversing a path through an ontology, the ontology having one or moresets of relationships between a plurality of service offerings providedby one or more of the service providers.
 18. A method, as in claim 17,wherein the ontology further specifies one or more of the provisioningprocesses required to provision the physical network assets required forone or more of the service offerings.
 19. A method, as in claim 17,wherein the ontology further specifies a hierarchical structure amongthe service offerings so that the path determined by the selectedservice offering defines an order of executing the provisioningprocesses.
 20. An apparatus for provisioning computing network assets toone or more users for users to operate and manage the assets, theapparatus comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memoryand configured to: receive a user request regarding one or more serviceofferings where two or more of the service offerings are provided bydifferent providers; for each service offering, determine a location forthe provider of the service offering; select one or more provisioningprocesses associated with the service offering for the respectiveprovider from a plurality of provisioning processes; and execute theprovisioning processes in an order to interact with an operationalsupport system (OSS) resulting in a set of assets that are provided tothe user from the provider.
 21. An apparatus, as in claim 20, whereinthe processor is further configured to execute one or more statusprocesses that are performed to change a service offering.
 22. Anapparatus, as in claim 20, wherein the location comprises one or morenetwork locations on a computer network.
 23. An apparatus, as in claim20, wherein the processor is further configured to create one or moreaccount entries that associate the change in the set of assets with theuser requesting the service offering.
 24. An apparatus, as in claim 20,wherein the physical network resources associated with the serviceofferings are provisioned by executing one or more processes in an orderdetermined by traversing a path through an ontology, the ontology havingone or more sets of relationships between a plurality of serviceofferings provided by one or more of the service providers.
 25. Anarticle of manufacture for provisioning computing network assets to oneor more users for users to operate and manage the assets, the article ofmanufacture comprising a computer readable storage medium havingtangibly embodied thereon computer readable program code which, whenexecuted, causes a computer to: receive a user request regarding one ormore service offerings where two or more of the service offerings areprovided by different providers; for each service offering, determine alocation for the provider of the service offering; select one or moreprovisioning processes associated with the service offering for therespective provider from a plurality of provisioning processes; andexecute the provisioning processes in an order to interact with anoperational support system (OSS) resulting in a set of assets that areprovided to the user from the provider.
 26. A method for provisioningcomputing resources to one or more users, wherein the computingresources are available from multiple service providers, the methodcomprising: providing a common support system to operate between the oneor more users and the multiple service providers such that at least aportion of the computing resources can be provisioned in order toprovide at least one of multiple services to the user; wherein thecommon support system maintains an ontology comprising one or more nodeswhich represent services offerings associated with processes, whereinthe processes are attached to the one or more nodes as well asrelationships across the nodes in the ontology such that work flows arerepresented by the processes and relationships between the computingresources and the processes are represented by the ontology, such thatone or more of the computing resources are provisioned to the one ormore users, in response to a request, in order to provide at least oneof the multiple services.